tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post5447906763399908712..comments2024-02-20T13:32:06.704-05:00Comments on Resource Insights: The big question: What do generations owe to each other?Kurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-76747919115938964912016-06-10T17:41:04.500-04:002016-06-10T17:41:04.500-04:00I know the answer! Kotlikoff writes of inter gene...I know the answer! Kotlikoff writes of inter generational accounting. I believe we need intra generational accounting. In a book keeping sense this would mean going from accrual to cash basis. The geezers are responsible for the geezers, etc. Of course this puts responsibility where it belongs...never a popular idea.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-82345154913761628122009-07-28T11:23:38.054-04:002009-07-28T11:23:38.054-04:00I don't think it's a problem of whether we...I don't think it's a problem of whether we're concerned about more than just our children and grandchildren or not. Rather, how in the world do you think it would possible to plan for in 100 years.<br /><br />Imagine it is 1909. On that date, could you hope to plan for 50 years in the future? Try buying a stock now, that your great, great grandchildren will make rich. Will the company even exist in 50 years??<br /><br />Climate change might well be an issue for our great grandchildren. But our time horizons are much shorter than that, so that we cannot in the slightest hope to plan for how to cope with it in 2-3 generations. Even if we thought that we could change the situation for our gggrandchildren, we would not. For we know that the future will be what we expect. And further into the future will be even less than what we expect...<br />Cheers, DomGermanDomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02517717882769553317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-20343924881734235132009-07-27T14:19:23.787-04:002009-07-27T14:19:23.787-04:00It's certainly interesting how we can try to a...It's certainly interesting how we can try to arbitrarily define a limit before we stop caring about our decendants, however I disagree with the idea that fossil fuels will be desirable in the future.<br /><br />We don't fully know the effects of climate change and how long they'll last, so we might not have a point where atmospheric co2 concentration drops below a certain limit and it's declared safe to burn fossils fuels again.<br /><br />But more relevant I feel, is that we're using the cheap, easy to find stuff already and in a journal article in Energy Policy on technology s-curves, it was suggested that renewables are likely to be several times more productive per dollar than fossil fuels.<br /><br />So in a future where our energy comes from renewables (and overall consumption is likely to be greater than now) I'm not sure that a relatively moderate supply of relatively expensive fossil fuels will be that great a worry.Paul Robinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17876096599596321564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-21259998461638848412009-07-27T14:07:21.257-04:002009-07-27T14:07:21.257-04:00"Is it natural or even practical to make sacr..."Is it natural or even practical to make sacrifices for people who will live a hundred or perhaps even a thousand years after us?"<br /><br />Nope. Except in the name of liberty. But not for "the environment". And it would be foolhardy to attempt to do so. we'll never get everyone to agree not to burn fossil fuels. Pollution or no, they just make life easier. That's why it is foolish to attempt to restrict the "wasting" of resources. <br /><br />Go down that road, and you end up with the same philosophy as the eugenicists and the transhumanists. Then before you know it you are manifesting utter contempt for the species, despite any noble intentions. It's better just to let humanity be what it is. With adversity comes diversity. You dont get much of either when you've got people trying to be overlords of every aspect of human civilization. <br /><br />I for one would rather live on a planet polluted with the evil scourge of carbon dioxide (!)than deal with these lying cheating doubletalking euthanizing rationalizing scumbags who claim they are trying to help the world when in reality they are just on a pathetic power trip.<br /><br />Notice how this filthy degenerate scum isnt talking about Hg, Pb, As, DU, GMO, and the rest of the long list of toxic elements and chemicals and hazards. No, we have to have a tax on breathing, and it has to be so obvious and so in-your-face how transparent their scheme is, yet somehow people still fall for it.Iconoclast421https://www.blogger.com/profile/01448094227173926913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-55722448673982955622009-07-20T23:58:40.270-04:002009-07-20T23:58:40.270-04:00This is an interesting problem.
There are a numbe...This is an interesting problem.<br /><br />There are a number of "what ifs" involved, and they point to something I've been barking about for a while.<br /><br />Picture this scenario: Tomorrow, we all wake up and decide we need to abandon the industrial project and go neolithic. At the same time, we can't do it next week, so we will work at making it happen ASAP. This would leave billions of barrels of oil in the ground. billions of tons of metals in the ground. billions of tons of coal in the ground.<br /><br />Obviously, it isn't likely to happen, but that's not my point. The fundamental point is that oil consumption is cultural. change the culture and oil goes away.<br /><br />I would recommend listening to "Nothing but flowers" by the Talking Heads. Relevant Lyrics follow:<br /><br />We caught a rattlesnake<br />Now we got something for dinner<br />we got it, we got it<br />There was a shopping mall<br />Now it's all covered with flowers<br />you've got it, you've got it<br />If this is paradise<br />I wish I had a lawnmower<br />you've got it, you've got it<br /><br />...<br /><br />The highways and cars<br />Were sacrificed for agriculture<br />I thought that we'd start over<br />But I guess I was wrong<br /><br />Once there were parking lots<br />Now it's a peaceful oasis<br />you got it, you got it<br /><br />This was a Pizza Hut<br />Now it's all covered with daisies<br />you got it, you got it<br /><br />I miss the honky tonks,<br />Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens<br />you got it, you got it<br /><br />And as things fell apart<br />Nobody paid much attention<br />you got it, you got it<br /><br />I dream of cherry pies,<br />Candy bars, and chocolate chip cookies<br />you got it, you got it<br /><br />We used to microwave<br />Now we just eat nuts and berries<br />you got it, you got it<br /><br />This was a discount store,<br />Now it's turned into a cornfield<br />you got it, you got it<br /><br />Don't leave me stranded here<br />I can't get used to this lifestyle!<br /><br />============================<br /><br />that sums it up pretty well...<br /><br />Things will fall apart, but will anyone notice? And if they don't, did a collapse actually happen?<br /><br />I wrote about this a few year sago - how the Romans didnt' have a notion of "Collapse" - for them, the golden age was always in the past, and the present was just a brutal nasty struggle for survival.<br /><br />You can postulate "a collapse of civilisation" but if civilisation doesn't see it as a collapse, then It's NOT a Collapse. <br /><br />As resources deplete, and oil disappears, the resulting shifts will not be seen as results of 2nd law thermodynamics in action, but more as "political misappropriation of resources" or "an unfortunate disease outbreak we couldn't do anything about" or "the corruption of the military industrial complex" or anything BUT: the fact that we are entropy machines sitting on top of a massive energy source that is being squandered and wasted and burned up as quickly as possible will NEVER get broadcast or achieve dominance in the present configuration of media ideology.<br /><br />It could change radically and EXTEMELY quickly. But there are a number of forces who would find suchlike threatening....Henry Warwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16051313050545406852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-69158120429014900022009-07-20T09:53:37.995-04:002009-07-20T09:53:37.995-04:00An interesting post. It's been confusing to me...An interesting post. It's been confusing to me for awhile that so many people are raising their children as if the future can only be more materially prosperous. It's almost as if anything less is emblematic of defeat.mattbghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531548248683577666noreply@blogger.com